Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating The Risk Intelligent Enterprise - Hardcover

Funston, Frederick; Wagner, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470247886 ISBN 13: 9780470247884

Publisher: Wiley, 2010

Synopsis

A new book to help senior executives and boards get smart about risk management

The ability of businesses to survive and thrive often requires unconventional thinking and calculated risk taking. The key is to make the right decisions—even under the most risky, uncertain, and turbulent conditions.

In the new book, Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise, authors Rick Funston and Steve Wagner suggest that effective risk taking is needed in order to innovate, stay competitive, and drive value creation.

Based on their combined decades of experience as practitioners, consultants, and advisors to numerous business professionals throughout the world, Funston and Wagner discuss the adoption of 10 essential and practical skills, which will improve agility, resilience, and realize benefits:

• Challenging basic business assumptions can help identify "Black Swans" and provide first-mover advantage

• Defining the corporate risk appetite and risk tolerances can help reduce

• the risk of ruin. 
• Anticipating potential causes of failure can improve chances of survival and success through improved preparedness. 
• Factoring in velocity and momentum can improve speed of response and recovery. 
• Verifying sources and the reliability of information can improve insights for decision making and thus decision quality. 
• Taking a longer-term perspective can aid in identifying the potential unintended consequences of short-term decisions.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Praise for SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN UNCERTAINTY

"The financial crisis prompted too many observers to conclude that corporate risk is fundamentally ungovernable. They need to read Funston and Wagner. Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty is an urgent, practical road map that shows boards, executives, and investors that it is not only possible, but necessary, to keep risk under constant watch and control."
—Stephen Davis, Executive Director, Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance, Yale School of Management

"Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty is must reading for executives and organizations hoping to prosper in tough times. Interesting and provocative, this book clearly demonstrates that while effective market transparency and oversight are important, we must also restore responsible risk-taking in order to power our enterprise economy forward."
—Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

"Too many current boards ignored their risk-oversight responsibilities to the detriment of their shareholders and the economy. While it is management's duty to set the enterprise's risk appetite and tolerance, these measures ultimately must be approved by the board. The authors offer boards the voices of experienced directors, along with their wisdom and practical advice, on implementing this most challenging of board responsibilities."
—Ira M. Millstein, Senior Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Get smart about risk management.

"Risk intelligence is dynamic. There is no set of rules to follow, no permanent certification, no way to insulate the organization from the forms that uncertainty and turbulence will take in the future. Rather, there is only a path to creating value and managing risks that enables better decisions."
—From Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise

With practical and demonstrated advice on encouraging better decision making through risk management, Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise challenges you to a new, multifaceted, panoramic way of viewing risk, one that encompasses both asset preservation and value creation.

Presenting factual, informative, provocative, and sometimes challenging views on the subject of risk management, this invaluable guide looks at a number of realities that you must confront if your business is to survive and thrive.

Here, you'll find essential guidance on:

• What the Risk Intelligent Enterprise looks like
• Why conventional risk management has failed
• The ten fatal flaws in conventional risk management . . .
• . . . And their ten corresponding enterprise risk intelligence skills
• The rewards of risk intelligence

Drawing from the experiences and perspectives of risk warriors in and out of the business world, the world-class strategies and approaches in Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise helps you get smart about managing risk—before it manages you.

From the Inside Flap:

SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN UNCERTAINTY
Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise

Why can't the cycle of scandal, speculation, greed, and recklessness be broken? With countless sums spent on enterprise risk management, why does it consistently fail at critical junctures? How can you hope to manage that? In a sense, you can't—not in the way you can manage a production facility or a sales force. Conventional risk management, though necessary, is concerned mainly with avoiding risk and protecting existing assets—and simply isn't enough for the survival of your organization.

Starting with a Foreword by the Honorable Tom Ridge—the nation's first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security—Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise reveals demonstrated methods you can use to help exercise better judgment and make better decisions under the most risky, uncertain, and turbulent conditions.

Based on their combined decades of experience as practitioners, consultants, and advisors to numerous business professionals throughout the world, recognized industry veterans and authors Frederick Funston and Stephen Wagner look at:

• Perspectives of those who work in risk, from business directors and senior executives to combat pilots, first responders, race car drivers, and astronauts
• How you can use risk management tools proactively instead of reactively to improve decision making
• The ten fatal flaws in conventional risk management . . .
• ...And their ten corresponding enterprise risk intelligence skills
• Why doing business based on tradition, habit, or on autopilot can mean your business's downfall

This book reveals risk management to be an integral part of value creation and preservation. Get smart in your approach to risk with the timely and relevant guidance found in Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0470247886
• ISBN 13: 9780470247884
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368